Native Tribes of the Northern Territory of Australia

by Baldwin Spencer

Macmillan And Co., London

[1914]

This is a comprehensive ethnography of the Australian Aborigines
of Northern Australia, particularly the group known as the Kakadu, and
the tribes of Melville Island.
This is one of about half a dozen ethnographies written before the
destruction of the Australian traditional cultures.
This book is well written and, for the most part,
presented from a non-ethnocentric (non-judgemental)
point of view, which sets it apart from
most of the other available public domain materal on this topic.
As far as material on the traditions of these tribes, this is the only
source text which we will ever have.
Shortly after this was written, the traditional life of these tribes
was devastated by the impact of European culture.
This is a priceless record of a vanished stone-age civilization.

Due to space considerations, I have only been able to include a few
of the illustrations; the complete list can be viewed at the link
at the top of each page labeled Images.
In addition, I have refrained from posting images of people,
ceremonies or sacred objects from the original book,
in deference to modern Aboriginal protocol.
I have included a set of bark drawings in the 'X-Ray' style.
This unique Aboriginal style is generally considered
one of the most sophisticated genres of representational art ever devised.

NOTICE

This classic work of anthropology
has been posted on the Internet for research purposes.
We believe that this work is substantially accurate in its details.
However some errata have been found which were present in the original
book and will be published here shortly.
Please be aware that some of the material presented here
may disclose information about
Aboriginal beliefs and practises which would normally only be
available to initiated persons.